Flywheel Removal

[Fifty]

Hi everyone. I'm trying to get my flywheel off of my '67 40 horse Johnson. I am using a harmonic balancer puller and it won't budge. I read someone's suggestion of using an impact wrench on the puller to break it loose. I'm affraid that it may strip the skinny 1/4" threads on the flywheel though. I'm wondering if it would be safer to apply a little heat with a propane torch. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[MASTER Brian]

Re: Flywheel Removal

I have heard of tapping the bolt that pushes against the crank with a mallet, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad on the flywheel.

Heat might mess up your seals. So I would be careful about that.

 

[boatingbob]

Re: Flywheel Removal

Hey, I just did this like 2 days ago, I threaded the bolts in about 1/2 " into the 3 holes made sure I had good thick washers between the puller and the bolt heads, made sure the puller was level so all the bolts where getting equal pressure and used an electric impact to pull the fly wheel. it seemed like it wouldn't come off, then POP off it came. the trick is to get equal pressure on all the bolts, and make sure if you are using an impact to set the pressure low that way it doesn't exert large amounts of torque all at once, inch it off, I could see the threads slowly turning like 1/16 of a rotation at a time for every hit of the impact.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Flywheel Removal

Snug the center bolt on the puller down tight. Hit center bolt forcefully but not all out. Tighten center bolt up again. Repeat..

 

[Fifty]

Re: Flywheel Removal

Impact wrench knocked it off instantly. Thanks, all.